A Main Event Party

After friends had left she got her free gelato,
which the host never brought during party

A new "entertainment venue" opened near the mall, and we decided to have Jane's birthday party there. It was today, and I'm over-peopled and wiped out. We had about 12 kids show up, plus Jane and Liv, so it was a lot to keep up with. More parents stayed than I expected.

The party host was new, only her second party, so some things didn't happen the way they should. The experienced host who helped dragged things out (opening presents?!) and we ended up feeling rushed out of our space because the gravity ropes started late. Kids were wandering around wanting to play games and parents wanted to leave to get home for the LSU game.

Because of when I scheduled the party it was over the lunch hour, and there really wasn't food included for parents -- and a LOT of parents stayed, more than I would have expected. By 3 pm when our family finally left (over an hour after the party was supposed to have ended) I was dehydrated and hangry. I kept it together mostly, but it was difficult. The loudness and bright lights of the arcades didn't help matters.

We bowled for an hour, then we fed the kids pizza and cookie cake. There were a few pieces of pizza left, so some parents did eat. I like being extravagantly generous and a good host, but it wasn't something I could pull off in this situation. I kept saying "I'm not in control of the schedule - I just paid for the party" when the kids said they were hungry or wanted to go do the arcade now. After the cookie cake there was supposed to be a scavenger hunt for Jane with pictures, dance off and more. But that didn't happen because of how slow it was for the pizza and drinks to get doled out.

The kids loved the gravity ropes, although one kid was too short, one kid freaked out and changed her mind and another kid freaked out ON THE TOP and came back down without really doing it. Livia was definitely too small. There were "shorty cards" that they were supposed to give with $10 extra for game play, but they were only $5 extra on top of the $5 cards I had for all the kids. Jane's VIP card didn't have any game play on it either. We ended up having enough to do a few games, which was fine, but it was a let down to me. Jane and the other kids didn't know any different so were fine.

We stopped at Sonic on the way home, got the wrong drink and only one water (the girls were dying of thirst), so were meaner than necessary to the car hop. That got sorted out and we came home to watch some TV -- screen time at last for the birthday girl.

I'm glad we did it once, and we might go hang out there sometime just for a day of family fun, but I don't think we'll spring for another party there. It was more than $400 all in I think, which is a bit more than a backyard bounce house was to rent. But I didn't have to clean my house (seriously it's in shambled right now), so that saved me some work. Maybe we could take three friends to the movies next year?! LOL.

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